


Wild Salt Air

by We_Are_Only_Halfway_Home93



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Treasure Hunt (Outer Banks), Big John's Alive, Brief Mentions Of Rape, F/M, JJ (Outer Banks) Deserves Happiness, Near Death Experiences, Not Canon Compliant, OBX, Original Character(s), Outer Banks, Underage Drinking, Underage Sex, mermaid, only at the beginning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:08:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25099684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/We_Are_Only_Halfway_Home93/pseuds/We_Are_Only_Halfway_Home93
Summary: The ocean is dark and deep, hiding all her treasures. JJ catches the eye of one such hidden creature.
Relationships: JJ (Outer Banks)/Original Female Character(s), Kiara/Pope (Outer Banks), Sarah Cameron/John B. Routledge
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I watched Outer Banks, like, forever and a day ago and JJ is my favorite. I mean, when is JJ not the favorite. Anyway, I got this idea in my head that JJ gets saved by a mermaid and they fall in love. It’s not going to be very long. I was going to make it a one-shot but the beginning is all background information so I decided that it was going to be maybe two or three chapters instead.
> 
> I based my mermaids on the story of the goddess Atargatis. Here’s a website that goes into more detail about her:
> 
> Atargatis the First Mermaid: https://www.fairychamber.com/blog/atargatis-the-first-mermaid.html
> 
> I also based it on a story that I swear I heard somewhere about how the sirens based on Greek myth were created when women jumped overboard instead of being taken by pirates. I swear I heard that somewhere but I cannot find it anywhere. 
> 
> I also made this story non-canon-compliant. John B and Sarah are together and so are Pope and Kiara. They didn’t search for treasure and Ward Cameron didn’t kill John B’s dad. This is mostly going to be about JJ and his mermaid but I just wanted to make it clear that it’s not compliant with the tv show. 
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

She was called many things.

Nereid

Mermaid

Nymph

Siren

She had but one name that she had been called as far back as she could remember. 

Dahlia

She didn’t remember much from before her life in the water. She remembered where she was born, she remembered her name and she remembered her death. 

She was born in Denmark to humble traders in 1770. She grew up on the coast learning to swim and to fish from her father. Her mother taught her how to bake and to sew, womanly endeavors. 

Her father traveled often, leaving for months at a time on trading vessels. She’d begged to go with him every season and every season he would say no, maybe next year. Her mother always said it was too dangerous. Terrible things happened to a woman at sea. 

Dahlia didn’t care. She possessed a love for the water she’d carry with her into death. 

The year she turned 16, her father finally let her accompany him on his voyage across the sea. He said it was a simple trade journey, delivering a cargo of beef, pork, sugar, butter, and so on. It would be months and she would be one of the only females aboard. She didn’t mind, she remembered. Just the joy of being with her father was enough to make the journey worthwhile. 

They were sailing along near the coast of the colonies when they were attacked. 

They were set upon by pirates and most of the crew was killed near instantly. They were not equipped with more than a handful of fighting men. They were a trade ship after all and most of the crew were merchants and fishermen. Her father had been one of the first to die, huddled as he was in a corner. He’d been shielding her from the attack and his death had exposed her.

Dahlia was one of only three women on board. The captain’s wife and the first mate's mother made up the rest. The captain’s wife had been sequestered in the cabin early in the fight being subjected to unspeakable things. The first mate’s mother had died quickly, falling on the sword of a pirate as she ran. 

Dahlia was unlucky enough to survive the initial attack. The pirate captain was fascinated with her. He’d twisted her hair around his fingers, stroking the nearly white strands with dirty nails. He’d commented on her eyes more than once, astonished at their indigo color. He’d remarked several times on their shifting hue in the light. He’d said they’d reminded him of the ocean and its constant changing waves. 

When he began speaking of taking her with him aboard his ship, she knew that her life was forfeit. She could not survive at the whims of another. She could only imagine the terrible things he’d planned to do to her and dread had speared her heart. 

His first mistake had been turning his back on her. She’d wanted to attack him but she knew she was no match. She was too small. She couldn’t take on any of his crew either. They had too much experience and she had no weapon. Her only choice, the only way she would be free of him, was death.

While his back was turned, she’d made her way to the side of the boat. The same side that the pirates had boarded. She’d stood on the edge, looking down at the sea. 

She would always remember how calm the water was. The waves lapped at the sides in the gentle breeze. There hadn’t been a cloud in the sky. The sun had been shining down on the deck, warming the wood and stinging the soles of her bare feet. 

A perfect summer's day.

She’d heard the captain call out to her so she’d turned. He had been standing a few feet in front of her, one hand outstretched. He didn’t try to move towards her.

He called to her again, flexing his fingers once towards him.

She’d met his eyes with her own and fell back, landing hard in the water.

She remembered closing her eyes, feeling the currents carrying her away. She remembered sinking lower and lower as her lungs began to burn. She had opened her eyes and watched as the sun grew further away as she sank. She remembered opening her mouth to take in a lungful of air when a dark shadow dove towards her. Then everything went black.

She doesn’t remember much after that.

It was as if she had woken from a dream and her life had always been as it was under the sea. 

Time moved differently beneath the water. 

Years felt like days and months felt like hours. Time went by and different ships sailed the seas. 

New ships, bigger ships, louder ships. 

Fewer men died at sea. Women even less so. 

Her sisters began to die off. One right after the other. 

As long as their lives were, they were not immortal. They lived for hundreds of years but they still grew old and gray. 

Their numbers dwindled until there were just a few hundred of them on that side of the coast. 

Dahlia lived a relatively solitary life. She had a tribe that she belonged to and others that would share with her but she liked being alone. 

She may have chosen to die at sea but she didn’t choose to become a predator. 

She loved her sisters and her life below the water but she never developed a taste for killing as they did. She didn’t relish in consuming the unsuspecting sailor who crossed their path. She didn’t enjoy hunting down men who sailed into their territory. Unlike her sisters, she still had some memories of her life before the sea. 

She knew that not all were evil. She remembered men like her father who lost his own life protecting hers. She didn’t think it was fair to kill all men because of a few bad ones. 

She remembered what it was like to walk above water and feel the sun on her face. 

The sun was warm and inviting. The water was cold and unforgiving. 

She had loved the sea in life but death reminded her of the warmth of the sun and all she had to offer.

She didn’t like it but she would do what she had to to survive. 

She often found herself watching the sun shimmer against the waves, her brilliant light blurred by the rolling sea. Sometimes, if she reached out, she could feel the warmth of her rays just barely brushing the skin of her palms. 

Oh, how she missed the sun.

The moon didn’t hold the same warmth like the sun. The moon was cold. The moon hid more than she revealed. 

Because of what she was, she was forced to lurk in the darkest depths of the water where humans couldn’t see. Horror stories traveled through their tribes faster than the changing tides. Stories about some of their kind being discovered and taken to the surface only to be tormented and butchered by humans. 

In her sisters’ eyes, humans were the enemy. Evil creatures put on the earth to destroy their kind. She didn’t remind them that they once used to be human. 

Because of humans, her sisters felt that they couldn’t travel during the day. It was safer to move at night. Hunting at night offered easier pickings. The weaker males didn’t last as long in the night. It made it harder for them to be seen, too, so they were less likely to be caught. Dahlia didn’t agree but she held her tongue. She was the minority among her kind. 

She didn’t count how long she’d been what she was. She knew that it had to have been years since she passed from her earthly life into her sea life but she wasn’t sure exactly how many.

She used the ocean activity to gauge the passing of time and to distract her from her unhappiness. 

Boats traveled further. They didn’t have to use oars anymore. Boats got bigger as well. Faster. 

Women started to frolic in the sea the same as men. Their bathing costumes grew smaller and more revealing. They created games in the water. 

Small boats that they would sit on individually and glide across the surface of the water. They chased each other on these contraptions, sending spouts of water into the sea as they traveled.

Big, long, boards that men and women would stand on and ride the waves. Small boards that would do the same. Skinny sticks that people would strap to their feet and then be pulled along by the boats. 

So many amazing things that Dahlia only dreamt about enjoying. 

It was on one of those days when she saw him.

She’d been hovering contently above an outcropping of reef, clinging low to its base, her tailfin slowly flicking from side to side. Her eyes scanned the ocean above her, watching the people play. Men and women, boys and girls, all of them were enjoying the ocean that day. 

She caught him out of the corner of her eye.

He was riding the waves on his board, dissecting them as they cut into his path. He sent foaming spray up every time he twisted the back end of the board. 

It was the sun that made him stand out. It shined off his body like wheat on a summer's day. His hair glistened in the light, sparkling as he crested each new wave. His body was browned by the sun, a new trend that she thoroughly enjoyed. 

Men and women alike were tanned. When she was a human, it was frowned upon for anyone to allow their skin to darken in the sun. The only people who did it were the ones who worked in the fields all day. Farmhands and servants. Any proper lady or gentleman would never allow the sun to darken their skin beyond its natural creamy complexion.

She found that she liked the browned skin of these new people. The way the sun licked their flesh was utterly fascinating. 

His skin was dark and wet, shining in the sun. 

She could tell he was strong. The way he kept his balance on the board showcased his core muscle strength. His legs were solid pillars of power as he steered the board through the water. She caught a glimpse of his hands when he briefly touched the surface on one of his passes across the waves. They were big and long and cut through the water like a blade.

She didn’t realize she’d followed him down the coast until he began paddling into shore. She was no longer covered by the reef and had exposed herself to anyone who happened to be swimming by. 

She found a large rock close to the beach that afforded her some level of protection. She poked her head out above the water just enough to watch him run ashore. 

He met another man on the beach. This man was sitting with a pile of what she assumed were their possessions. He had long dark hair and some kind of dark shield covering his eyes. The golden man ran out of the water and up the beach, slapping hands with the man sitting. 

She watched as they gathered their things and left the beach, all the while the gold one shook the water from his hair and glistened in the sun.

She found herself looking for him after that day.

At first, it was just every once in a while when she found herself watching the water but eventually she would stop every day and watch the waves. She found that the more she stopped the more likely she was to see him. 

She learned new things about him when he was on the water. She learned that he was stubborn, falling off his board and getting back on every time, never letting the water defeat him. She learned that he was funny, making his companions laugh when they played together. 

Mostly it was his spirit that made her love him. He rode every wave like it was the most important thing he needed to accomplish. He sailed the ocean like it was what he was born to do. He looked ready to conquer the world some days. Others it looked like the world had conquered him but he always rode the waves with a determination her father would have been proud to see on any of her suitors. 

It was when that thought first crossed her mind that she realized she may be in love with him. 

Her kind didn’t fall in love. There were no males of their species. 

They were created when the goddess Atargatis jumped to her death after the death of her beloved. The water would not conceal her beauty so she was turned into a half-woman, half-fish, forever roaming the waters alone. 

This tragic love grew through the centuries into despair and death. Women who jumped to their untimely death from any vessel at sea would be given the kiss of Atargatis and turned into a half-woman, half-fish, forever roaming the sea, killing unsuspecting sailors and men when they crossed their paths.

She was given one such kiss and forever bound to the water. 

She could become human again if she so desired. 

If the pull of her heart was ever strong enough, and she gave the kiss of Atargatis to a man, she would forfeit her extended life and transform back into her human self. She would save the life of her human man and, in turn, become human herself.

There were only whispers that this had happened before. Not one of her sisters to recall if one of their kind had ever actually bestowed the kiss of Atargatis onto a man. She didn’t even know if it could be done.

She would try though. 

It was only instinct that drove her to do it. She didn’t intend to give him the kiss of Atargatis but it did happen. 

It had been a dreary day. A storm was coming. She could feel it in the water.

The waves had been angry all day, beating the coast without mercy, washing debris onto the shore, and back out again as they retreated only to bombard the sand with more fury. 

It was on days like this that her sisters took shelter far beneath the surface of the ocean where the gods’ wrath couldn’t reach them. 

  
Dahlia liked days like this. 

These were days where she could swim freely near the surface without fear of being seen.

Humans were less likely to venture into the water when the waves were this angry. 

She was swimming along the drop off when she saw golden legs splash into the water. She jerked back and darted away, retreating far from human eyes. 

When her heart stopped racing, and she was well hidden behind an outcropping of rocks, she lifted her head out of the water and searched the coast. 

The air froze in her lungs when she saw her golden boy cutting through the waves on his board. 

The dark gray clouds moved menacingly towards him, his frame shrinking as the waves rose and crashing around him. 

She could just make out the lines of his from her distance. His brows were drawn together in a deep scowl and his frame was tense. His eyes were wet but not from the ocean and his lips were nearly bloodless, he pressed them together so hard.

He was angry. 

She didn’t know why but she didn’t care. 

Behind him, a towering wave rose, dwarfing his body against its deep backdrop. She saw it happening just seconds before it did. 

The wave crashed down on him, dragging him down into the depths of the ocean before he had time to blink. 

A cry escaped her lips and she dove down, frantically searching for him beneath the black waters. 

She swam across the ocean and down, diving further away from any light as she went. Her eyes adjusted easily but her golden boy remained out of sight. 

Her eyes grew heavy and her chest tightened as she searched the waters in a desperate bid to find him. Her hair swirled around her in frantic tendrils as she whipped her head around. 

Just as she felt that hope was lost and her golden boy was gone, lightning lit up the sky and she saw the outline of a body floating gently just a few feet from her.

Her heart leaped with joy and she darted towards him. She wrapped her arms around his chest and flung herself towards the surface as fast as her fin would carry her. 

She broke the surface and desperately searched the shoreline. Several feet to her right there was a stretch of beach with several small hills obscuring part of the short from view. She needed to be as hidden as possible.

It didn’t take her long to reach the shore even with his additional weight. She pushed him up as far as she could. She settled herself at his side and pressed a hand to his chest. He wasn’t moving. 

She laid her head where his heart was and heard no beating. She felt tears come to her eyes and rush down her cheeks before she had time to stop them. She closed her eyes and nuzzled against the side of his chest, begging Atargatis to save him.

A deep calm settled over her and she opened her eyes.

She sat up and gazed down at his face. He could’ve been sleeping. 

She stroked her fingers down the plains of his face, tracing the smooth slope of his nose and hard angle of his jaw. She ran her fingertips over his eyebrows, shaking off the dampness that lingered. She dragged her thumb over his full bottom lip, tugging it down and clicking her nail against his teeth. She smoothed her hand across his face, tracing the shell of his ear. 

She leaned down, bumping her nose against his. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. He smelled of salt and sand. The aroma lingered in his sinuses and she savored it. 

She pressed her forehead against his, bracing herself.

She touched her lips to his, the barest hint of skin against skin. 

He tasted like the salt of the sea and sunshine. 

She pressed harder, willing herself into him. 

After what felt like several minutes, she pulled away, stroking her thumb over his cheekbone. 

She didn’t even know if it would work. She’d only ever heard rumors. She hoped it worked. He was beautiful. He was the light of her sun. He shined bright upon her under the sea, allowing her to feel that much more warmth from the sun. He brought a newness to the ocean that she hadn’t seen in a long time. He made her feel alive again, so much more than the predator she’d been turned into. 

She felt a shift in her center of gravity, like a piece of her she didn’t know was missing finally locked into place. A cooling sensation followed. It started at the crown of her head and slowly worked its way down her spine, settling over her. It was then that she knew it had worked. 

She watched as the color returned to his cheeks. His eyes began to move beneath his lids. His fingers flexed against the sand but still, his chest did not rise with breath. 

“JJ!” She looked up when a shout echoed through the tense air. 

Four people came down the beach, frantic. One she recognized as the long-haired man who’d greeted her golden boy on the shores so many weeks ago. The others she’d never seen before. 

There was a dark-skinned boy whose hands were clutching the back of his head in desperation. An olive-skinned girl who cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted again, “JJ!” 

The final person on the beach was a tanned girl with golden-brown hair flowing down to her waist. She clutched the hand of the long-haired boy and frantically searched the beach. 

A strangled gasp resounded beneath her and she looked down. 

His eyes were unfocused as he gazed up at the sky. His chest heaved with each breath that he took. She stroked her hand down the side of his face and he jerked his head towards her. 

She hovered over him, really gazing down into his face for the first time. Until now, she’d only ever seen him from a distance. He was beautiful then. Now he was striking. 

His crystal eyes shifted in and out of focus, staring up at her. He brought a hand up to cradle hers against his face. 

“JJ!”

She looked over. He followed at a sluggish pace. They were getting closer. 

She looked down at him. His face was turned towards his friends. She glanced back over at them before she dropped her lips down to his, placing a tender kiss on the corner of his mouth. He tried to move, to react but she didn’t let him. 

She slithered down his frame, her hand trailing across his chest as she disappeared back into the water. 

She could feel the strength leaving her tail fin and knew it was only a matter of time before it was gone, replaced by human legs. She needed to find a place away from here where she could shift under the camouflage of the beach.

She sank below the surface and watched as his friends discovered him supine on the shore. She watched as they lifted and carried him away. 

A flame of hope sprang up in her chest when his head turned to look over his shoulder. She hoped he was looking for her. 

She felt her lungs tighten and release, a sure sign that she was rapidly losing her abilities. She ducked down under the water, swimming with minimal strength to the cover of a cave only a few yards from where she’d left her golden boy. JJ. 

With hope burning bright in her chest, she settled in her cave and let her transformation take hold.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> JJ tries to convince his friends that someone saved him from the water. The truth is easier to accept when you see it with your own eyes.

“I’m telling you. Someone pulled me from the water.” 

It had been three days since JJ had almost died out in the water. For two of those days, he’d dragged his friends along the beach in search of the mysterious girl who’d pulled him from the water. 

He didn’t get a good look at her but he’d dreamed about her every night since she’d rescued him. 

He could see her face as clearly as if she still hovered over him in bed. Her long white hair hanging around them like a veil, her deep purple-blue eyes gazing down at him in desperation. Her hands were soft as they stroked across his face and chest. 

She’d disappeared before he could ask her her name of where she came from. One minute she was there, crying, and the next John B and Pope dragged him to his feet and carried him away, the girl nowhere in sight. 

The first night, he’d gone back on his own, tracing his steps to the beach where he’d surfed. He couldn’t find the spot where she’d left him. Nothing looked familiar. 

Today, he’d convinced his friends to come and search with him. They remembered the spot better. Kiara still couldn’t talk about it without tears coming to her eyes. 

When they’d found him she said he’d been basically unresponsive. His eyes had been half-open and unfocused, rolling around his sockets like pinballs in a machine. John B and Pope had to carry his whole weight because they said he couldn’t walk on his own. 

When he woke up at John B’s house, they had all been huddled around the bed, asking him if he was okay. The first thing he asked was where the girl was. 

“What girl?” Pope asked. JJ looked at him and took a long drink of the water bottle Sarah gave him.

“The girl. The girl who pulled me out of the water.” 

He knew something was wrong when they all exchanged disbelieving looks. None of them said it but he knew. They didn’t believe him. 

“We didn’t see a girl, JJ,” Sarah replied. She stood up then and left the room. Kiara easily slid into her place on the bed.

“We just found you, hardly conscious, alone, covered in bruises.” She whispered. She placed a tentative hand over his. She meant it to be assuring but JJ just felt annoyed. He pulled his hand slowly from beneath hers. 

He wasn’t going to tell them that the bruises were from his dad and his reckless surfing adventure was to try to blow off whatever residual steam was leftover from their fight. 

“There was a girl. I remember I was surfing and then this wave hit me from behind and I blacked out and the next thing I know, there’s this girl leaning over me, crying.” He glanced up at his friends and felt himself deflate. They didn’t believe him. He could see it on their faces. 

Pope and John B exchanged guarded expressions, their eyes doing the talking. Kiara’s face was carefully blank of any emotion besides the calm she wanted to convey. Sarah came back in with a plate full of food. She set it on the table next to him and smiled. 

He glanced at it before looking back at his friends. “No, you know what. I can tell that you don’t believe me. You’re giving each other these little looks. You think I’m crazy or–or seeing things. I’m not crazy, okay?”

Kiara nodded emphatically, squeezing his hands. “No, JJ, we don’t think you’re crazy.”

“Yeah, man, you probably just hit your head or something.” John B exclaimed. JJ shook his head, ignoring the vertigo that assaulted him, and stood up. Kiara followed him and reached out her hands to steady him. 

“No. No, I didn’t hit my head. There was a girl. She pulled me out of the water and–and saved my life.” He looked up at them, his eyes bright with certainty and willed them to believe him. They hesitated before John B stepped forward. 

“Okay, JJ, okay. How about, when you’re feeling better, we go out and look for her, okay?” He turned to look at the rest of his friends who all nodded and chorused their own affirmative responses. JJ couldn’t wait. 

He had pushed past John B and ventured out on his own, looking for the girl with little success. 

That was yesterday. 

When he made to go out on his own today, Kiara had stopped him with a firm hand to his chest and told him he wasn’t going anywhere. He’d dared her to stop him when Pope butted in and said they would all go look together.    
  


They rounded up John B and Sarah and Pope led them back to the place where they’d found JJ. 

He scanned the horizon. Nothing looked familiar but something in his gut told him he’d been there before. 

“This was where we found you, JJ. Half-conscious and barely breathing.” Kiara growled. She was there under protest. She had made it clear that she didn’t think they should be out there so soon after his accident. She hadn’t  _ said  _ she didn’t believe him but she made it pretty clear that she didn’t think there was a mystery girl. 

JJ brought his gaze up from the sand and gazed further down the beach. 

“What did your mystery girl look like, JJ?” Pope asked curiously.

JJ settled his hands on his hips and took a deep breath, puffing his cheeks out on the exhale. “I don’t really… remember. She was leaning over me. Her hair was wet.” He closed his eyes and called to mind his dreams. 

“She had these deep, violet eyes. She was crying. She had her hand on my face.” His eyes opened with sudden clarity that hadn’t been there before. “She kissed me.”

Pope’s eyes widened comically and he looked over at John B who was suppressing a smile. “She kissed you, huh?” JJ rolled his eyes and kicked at the sand. Sarah and Kie exchanged glances before walking off together down the beach. 

“So she was hot then, right?” John B asked. JJ snorted and looked up.

“I guess. Like I said I don’t really remember what she looked like. Just her eyes. They were a color I’d never seen before. Almost purple they were so dark. And sad. She had sad eyes. I don’t know if she was crying because of me or something else but she was sad.”

He met Pope’s eyes who was trying and failing, not to grin. He cursed and punched Pope’s shoulder who raised his arms in surrender. John B laughed. 

“Hey, guys! There’s a cave a little way down the beach!” They heard Sarah call. They turned to follow the girls and JJ felt something settle in his chest. Like something that had been knocked out of place was pushed back in or a puzzle piece had been upside down. He knew then that they were on the right track. 

He took the lead and pushed past Sarah and Kie. Kiara shoved his back but he was already far ahead of her to notice. He carefully traversed the rocks jutting out from the mouth of the cave and ventured with slow and careful steps further in. He heard Pope and Kie call out for him to be careful but he was too wired. He knew that he was in the right place. 

“Hello?” He called. 

His voice echoed down the cave and he scanned the darkness for any flash of movement. The cave was surprisingly quiet. He thought that his voice would’ve been drowned out by crashing waves or rushing water but his voice seemed to be the only sound in the cave. 

A movement to his left caught his eye and he whipped his head towards it. He crouched low and moved towards where he’d seen it. A large rock jutted out from the side of the cave and covered a large section of the wall there. He couldn’t see around or over it so his only option was to move closer. He could hear his friends whispering behind him but he didn’t care. They were probably worried about his mental health right about now but he was so sure that the girl was in this cave that he paid them no mind. 

He reached the rock and lowered himself to his belly, grimacing at the rough edge. He pushed himself further up the top of the rock and tried to peer over it. All he saw was black. 

“Hello?” He said again. This time he kept his voice low and even. If she was there, he didn’t want to scare her off. 

He couldn’t have waited longer than a few minutes but it felt like hours. He was getting ready to call out again when he heard movement. He held his breath as he watched something crawl out from underneath the rock. 

Small, pale hands reached up and gripped the edge of the rock that JJ was laying on. The fingers flexed as she pulled herself up above the ledge she was under. Violet popped up above the ledge, almost at eye level. She kept her chin hidden behind the rock but he could see her eyes. That’s all that mattered. She was real.

He scanned what little of her he could see and drew his eyebrows together. Her shoulders were bare and her hair and face were dirty. If she’d been here for the three days that he’d been gone, he wasn’t surprised if she was dirty. On the other hand, if she’d been here for three days, he was worried about her health. 

“Are you alright?” He whispered. 

He jerked back when her whole head popped up from behind the rock and she kissed him full on the mouth. He was frozen for only a second before he kissed her back. He tasted salt and something citrusy on her tongue. He hummed and leaned forward as she drew back. She giggled and he didn’t think he’d ever heard a prettier sound. 

When she pulled away, JJ could see that she was very naked and very dirty but she was smiling. A wide smile that lit up her eyes and brightened her entire face.

He brought a hand up to his head and straightened his baseball hat. He felt a heat overwhelm his face and cursed himself. He hadn’t blushed since Jessica Arthur let him finger her up in her basement closet during 7 Minutes in Heaven in ninth grade. 

“I guess that answers my question.” She giggled again and ducked back down behind the rock, hiding her smile.


End file.
